How to SAVE $$$ with the internet

[Staceyy]

I forgot to add that I started a blog on the internet that brought me to the attention of a large pharmaceutical company, and then to the attention of a publisher who offered me a book contract with an advance. The blog is located at The Diabetic Pastry Chef

[Retiredhousewife]

And you can make more this way.

In addition to many of the suggestions already posted, I do some online survey's, and they net me a little bit of money each month (approximately $20 per month).

If you find the good sites!! I just did a Live Survey tonight with Invoke Solutions for $20.00!! It takes a bit of weeding out the waste of time Survey sites, but once you figure out the ones that pay, you can really make a few dollars.

[Goldy1]

e bay listing fee is only 35 cents if you start it under $10 (I know they have a promotional buy it now at any price for 35 cents)

I agree with e bay being overall great but you have to pay about 15% of the item's final value and also paypal fees.

Slso if you list 10 items and don't seel 4, you have to decuts the insertion fees of the unsold items into what you took in from the items you did sell. It is good but a time drain.

[disneysteve]

I agree with e bay being overall great but you have to pay about 15% of the item's final value

FVF is a lot less than 15%. It is 8.75% of the first $25.00, then 3.5% beyond that up to $1,000.

[moneybags]

FVF is a lot less than 15%. It is 8.75% of the first $25.00, then 3.5% beyond that up to $1,000.

Check out the new FVFs. They vary depending on what you're selling. A few examples: Books, music, dvds, movies & video games are 15% of first $50, 5% after that. Clothing is now 12% of first $50.

So, the fees can be outrageous. Add paypal fees on top of that and federal & state income tax, and your profit quickly disappears.

[disneysteve]

Check out the new FVFs. They vary depending on what you're selling. A few examples: Books, music, dvds, movies & video games are 15% of first $50, 5% after that. Clothing is now 12% of first $50.

True, though that only applies to fixed price listings. You can get the lower FVFs by doing auctions instead, can't you? I'm not sure why anyone would do a fixed price and pay the higher fees. If you are selling a DVD, for example, if you do a fixed price for $5.00, you'll pay $.15 to list and $.75 FVF for a total of $.90. With an auction for $5.00, you'll pay $.25 to list and $.44 FVF for a total of $.69. Your chances of selling the item are the same either way and with the auction, you actually have the chance for your item to sell for more than your starting bid.

[mommyof4]

If you find the good sites!! I just did a Live Survey tonight with Invoke Solutions for $20.00!! It takes a bit of weeding out the waste of time Survey sites, but once you figure out the ones that pay, you can really make a few dollars.

I went to this website, but I couldn't figure out how to join. Do you have a link, or can you tell me where to look?

Maybe this his how they weed out the idiots- if you can't figure out how to join, then they don't want you! Guess I know which group I'm in..... (Sheesh- all that $$$ on 2 Master's Degrees, too).

[disneysteve]

Thought of a couple more:

Recipes: I don't think there is any reason for anyone with internet access to ever spend another penny for a cookbook. There is an endless supply of recipes of every imaginable type and cuisine available at your fingertips online, ranging from average folks to celebrity chefs. Folks like Rachel Ray and Emeril Lagasse probably make a mint selling cookbooks, but you can find most (if not all) of their recipes online for free.

Newspapers and Magazines: Most major newspapers and lots of magazines can be read online for free. The newspapers are posted daily and can be searched (unlike a real paper). Magazines often don't post the current issue but all past issues may be online. I believe TIME has their entire archives online and searchable.

[cptacek]

I have scanned and emailed documentation to our insurance company on the deadline instead of driving it to them (saving 20 miles round trip). I know I could have sent it in the mail, but it was the day it was due.

[TerryR]

One way of saving money and gaining good profit would be online banking - using banks that are only on the internet. An online bank offers a good and a higher APY compared to quite a few bricks and mortar banks, plus you save on gas, paper and time.

[disneysteve]

It's funny that you brought up this thread, Terry. I was going to do that today.

Last night, my daughter was doing a school assignment making a graph for math. The teacher had given each kid a sheet of graph paper. Well, my daughter messed something up and needed to start over but didn't have another sheet of graph paper. We didn't have any of the right kind in the house. In the "olden" days, I would have had to get in the car, drive to the store and buy a whole pack of graph paper. Instead, I walked upstairs, opened my draw program and in about 2 minutes, had made and printed a sheet of graph paper identical to the kind she was using. I saved the file in case we need it again (or in case she made any other mistakes). So that saved us the cost of a pack of paper, the cost of driving to the store and back and the time that would have taken.